By CNTV Panview editor team  

Editor’s foreword: "Looking China" International Youth Film Project is co-organized by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC), Beijing Normal University and Huilin Foundation, which aims to showcase the contrasting simplicity and glamour, the antiquity and fashion of China through unique perspectives of young foreign film makers.

As of the year 2016, 101 students from 25 countries were invited to participate in the project. They were stationed in 13 municipality, provinces and autonomous regions here in China. Every filmmaker has worked out a 10-minute short film about Chinese culture around the topic of “ethnic minority”.

The film director Niki Tomborlesi produced a short documentary, depicting the Bai ethnic minority who live near Lake Erhai by Cangshan mountain, in a place called Dali Old Town.

The video displays amazing scenic choreography with serene music in the background. The camera crew follows an elderly Bai family who hand-craft tie-dye fabrics for customers, who can purchase items from online sales platforms.

They make clothes and bedding by hand, which is no easy process. They have to follow detailed steps and develop new designs and patterns to capture the customers’ attention.

Tie-dye is basically making colors with clothes and creating stitch-work patterns. You must dye the clothes in a thick liquid that originates from the root of a plant that is also extracted for medicinal tea.

It’s hard work, but just as in life when we struggle more, we appreciate the rewards far greater.

Apparently, it seems that only elderly Bai people have continued on with tie-dye fabric-making, but they utilize modern tools, such as sewing machines and online sales marketing to connect with the trendy Chinese customers of today.

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